1.5 What kinds of words are borrowed?.................................................................17

1.6 How many words are loanwords?.....................................................................19

2. An investigation of the origin of
the words in “God save the Queen”…..…….21

Conclusion…………………………………………………………………….….28

List of the literature………………………………………………………………30

Appendix 1……………………………………………………………………….31

Introduction

People all around the globe with different
mother tongues often have the same opinion regarding loanwords in their
languages; they mostly do not like them. They wish that their own native
words would be used instead and often fear that too much borrowing could
lead to their mother tongue eventually dying out. A lot of this fear
has been directed on the English language the last decades. Due to its
tremendous rise as a global language many English words have entered
other languages in all parts of the world. Babysitter and makeup are
just two examples of common English words that are used in many other
languages around the globe. Today, many countries are trying to reduce
the influence that English has on their native tongues. In France, for
example, laws are passed that make it illegal to use an English word
in official contexts when there are native words that could be used
instead [5 P. 23]. However, English is not the only language that has
played an important role in “exporting” words to other languages.
Latin and French, for example, are two other languages that have had
a deep impact on many others throughout history. Most people do not
seem to realize that borrowing words from other languages is a very
old and common linguistic phenomenon. All languages have some words
in their vocabulary that are of foreign origin, and so does the English
language. This essay will focus on exactly this subject: the role borrowings
in English. The paper will deal with many aspects concerning this topic.
The essay will be divided in two major parts: a theoretical and an empirical
part. In the theoretical part, essential information will be given on
the subject. What languages do loanwords in English come from? When
and why were these words borrowed? In the empirical part, the British
national anthem, “God Save the Queen”, will be analyzed. How many
words in the text originally come from other languages? What other languages
do these words come from? What kinds of words are loanwords? “God
Save the Queen” was chosen as the object to be examined, because
a national anthem usually has the purpose of symbolizing a people and
its country. Therefore it is interesting to discover if the words that
are used in the song are also native English words.

1. Theoretical background

1.1 Definition

A substantial amount of all English
words have been borrowed from other languages. These words are usually
called “loanwords”, since they are not native English words. In
Merriam-Webster’s Online dictionary the word “loanword” is
defined in this way: “a word taken from another language and at least
partly naturalized [12]. Naturalized means in this case “to introduce
into common use or into the vernacular” [16]. Loanwords are often
even more widely known than native words since their “borrowing served
a certain purpose, for example to provide a name for a new invention”
[12]. An example of such a borrowing is “pizza”. Since the Italians
were those who introduced pizzas in England, the English borrowed the
word from them [11].

The word “loanword” is in
fact a type of loanword itself. The word comes from the German word
“lehnwort”, which means precisely loanword. In this case, the meaning
of the German words (lehn + wort), the English equivalents are used.
This type of borrowing is called a calque. As this example shows us,
there are different kinds of borrowings, and they can be divided into
subgroups. These subgroups will be discussed later in the essay.

The word “borrow” is often
used in literature on loanwords to symbolize that a language uses a
word that originally comes from another language. In this paper the
term will also be used, even though the word is somewhat misleading.
The word “borrow,” indicates that the item borrowed will be
returned, and since this obviously is not the case, “borrow”
may not be the best metaphor in this particular case.

In order for loanwords to enter a language
it is necessary that some people of the “borrowing” language
are bilingual. These people have to be able to understand and to some
extent speak the “lending” language so that words can be borrowed
from that language.

Borrowings enter a vernacular in a
very natural way. The process starts off with that bilingual people
of a certain language community start using words from another language.
These people often choose to use certain foreign words because they
feel that these words are more prestigious than their native ones. As
time passes, more and more people start using the word and eventually
the word has become a part of the vocabulary of the borrowing language.
An example of this is how it became popular for the upper class in Germany
in the beginning of the 18th century to speak French. Between, 1650
and 1770, France was the leading political and cultural nation in Europe,
and the French language was very popular and prestigious during this
time. Many wealthy Germans also wanted to be part of the culture and
therefore learned French and became bilingual [3 P. 143]. The majority
of Germans, who were poor peasants, however, still spoke German, but
many French loanwords managed to enter the German vocabulary. Examples
are the words “Kostüm”, “Parfüm”, “Promenade” and “Balkon”
[3 P. 143]. Often, the original native word exists alongside the borrowed,
but many times the native word died out.

Sometimes however, the “borrowing”
language does not have a native word with the same meaning as the loanword.
When this is the case, certain concepts, ideas or objects of the “lending”
language community are new to the people of the “borrowing”
language community. So, instead of making up a complete whole new word
for the idea or object they simply borrow the word from the people they
came in contact with. An example of this is the word “bagel”. The
word was adopted from the Yiddish language, since the Jews were those
who introduced bagels to the rest of the world [19]. Many other languages,
including English, therefore borrowed the word “bagel”.

Another reason for borrowing lexica
from other languages is when a language uses words that are not semantically
differentiated enough. An example of such a case is how the English
used the word “lufu” (love) when they meant “charity” before
the 12th century. Since “lufu” also had the meaning as it has today
it was at times unclear what a person meant. This resulted in that the
English borrowed the word “charity” from French, in order to be
able to more specifically distinguish between the two words [2 P. 87].

Most English loanwords have been a
part of the English vocabulary for a long time. Many people would not,
for example, consider the word, “simple” to be a loanword,
since it was borrowed centuries ago. “Simple” entered the English
language around 1220 and was adopted from the French language [13].
The word is, however, not originally a French word, but had once been
borrowed from Latin [13]. As this example shows us, loanwords can have
existed in our vocabulary for a very long time, but still be loanwords.
In order for us to be able to distinguish between borrowings and native
words, however, we have to understand and know the history of the English
language.

1.3 Loanword periods

English has borrowed words from virtually
all languages on earth. The British came in contact with many different
people and languages when the British Empire colonized various parts
of the world. Hindi words, like shampoo and pajamas, for example, were
adopted into English after the British had colonized India and there
had been contact between the natives and British [20]. English has,
in this sense, been a very open language, and not been afraid of borrowing
material from other languages.

One language had especially a deep
impact on English: Latin. Latin has influenced English exceedingly throughout
history, and the first period of Latin influence took place around 2000
years ago on the Germanic dialects that would one day develop into English.
Christian missionaries coming to Britain in the 6th century and 7th
century brought with them Latin religious terms which entered the English
language: abbot, altar, apostle, candle, clerk, mass, minister, monk,
nun, pope, priest, school, shrive. It is often said that English is,
to some extent, as much a Romance language as a Germanic one,n because
of the tremendous amount of words that have been borrowed from Latin
and French.

The next part of the essay will look
at loanword periods in the history of the English language. There are
five major Romance loanword periods. These periods are the zero period,
the first period, the second period, the third period and the modern
period [17].

We will also look at other languages
that have helped shape the English vocabulary.

1.3.1 The zero period

Even before English became English,
in other words, before the Angles, Jutes and the Saxons moved to the
British Isles, the dialects they spoke on the continent came in contact
with the Romans and their language, Latin. Even though the Germanic
languages and Latin derived from the same source, namely the Indo European
language, they had developed in different directions and were back then,
as they are today, completely different languages. At this point in
history, the Romans were far more technically advanced than the Germanic
people [3 P. 55]. They had plenty of words in their vocabulary that
the Germanic people did not have, because they had not developed the
objects or ideas yet. An example of this is that they only lived in
wooden houses and had not discovered the art of building houses out
of stone.

When they came in contact with the
Romans, though, and learned this new technique, they borrowed the Latin
terms [3 P. 55]. Most of these words were quite short and therefore
“easily adaptable to the highly inflected Germanic languages”
[17].

The words often had to do with cooking,
military matters, commerce and trade [17]. Examples of words that were
borrowed during this period are “mule”, “chalk” and
“linen” [8].

1.3.2 The first period

During the first period, which began
in year 43 A.D. and continued until 449 A.D., “Latin was the official
language of the administration” in the British Isles [17]. The
Anglo-Saxons had not yet migrated to the British Isles and the Celts,
the indigenous people of Britain, were living there. The Romans had
occupied the country, and their language, Latin, became the official
language. Many Latin loanwords entered Celtic languages during this
period, and these loanwords were then passed on to the Anglo-Saxons
when they moved to Britain. Here are some examples of the loanwords,
which entered the language during this period : ambassador, bannock,
bard, bracket, breeches, car, career, carry, charge, druid, embassy,
piece, vassal.

1.3.3 The second period

During the second period, which took
place between 597 A.D. and 1066 A.D., the Romans christianized the Anglo-Saxons.
This period can be divided into two parts, the Early and the Benedictine
period [17]. During the Early period many words were borrowed from Latin
that were related to the Anglo-Saxons new religion, Christianity [17].
Examples of such words are “bishop”, “mass” and “pope” [17].
Words relating to other subjects were also borrowed, like school and
plant. During the Benedictine period, many exotic and learned words
were borrowed [9].

During this period there was also some
borrowing of Celtic words. Celtic name words for places and rivers were
frequently borrowed, and today many of the names of towns in England
have their origin in the Celtic language. Examples are: London, Cornwall
and Thames [19]. However, only a few “normal” Celtic loanwords
entered the English language during this time. The explanation for this
is most likely that the Anglo-Saxons were the conquerors and the Celts
the conquered, and the powerful people only seldom borrow words from
the people they have defeated. Additionally, there was not much contact
between the Celts and the Anglo-Saxons and the relationship between
them was presumably hostile [9].

There was also a profound Scandinavian
influence on the English vocabulary during this period. The Vikings
occupied the northeastern parts of England and Scotland, later to be
called the Danelaw, in the 9th and 10th Century, and therefore many
words from their mother tongue, Old Norse, entered the English language.
Words, like “dream”, “sky” and the pronoun “they” are examples
of words that were borrowed from the Old Norse language [12]. Since
Old English and Old Norse were fairly similar languages, it is likely
that a colloquial Anglo-Norse arised in the Danelaw area [6 P. 63].
In this colloquial it was easy for many Old Norse words to replace Old
English ones. A further example of a word that was once borrowed from
Old Norse is “window”. The Scandinavian name was “vindöga”´,
but in some Scandinavian languages like Swedish, for example, the word
is not used anymore. The Swedes borrowed the word “fönster” from
Low German in the 15th century, and this example shows us that other
languages, in this case English, may save a word from dying out, because
they became loanwords [3 P. 130].

1.3.4 The third period

In year 1066 A.D. the Norman Conquest
took place. The Anglo-Saxons were defeated, and since the Normans spoke
Norman French, their language became the official language in England
[17]. Both in business and in the government Norman French was the language
that was used (examples are : attorney, bailiff, chancellor, chattel,
country, court, crime,

defendent, evidence, government, jail,
judge, jury, larceny, noble,

parliament, plaintiff, plea, prison,
revenue, state, tax, verdict) [6 P. 74]. Norman French was a local variant
of Old French that was spoken in the area of Normandy in the 10th century.
The people that lived in this area and spoke this dialect where originally
of North Germanic origin, which lead to that Norman French had a considerable
amount of Germanic influence [20].

Thousands of words, from all kinds
of fields, were borrowed from Norman French into English after the Norman
Conquest. Words like: castle, marry, noun, language, glory and poet
are all examples of loanwords from this time [20]. Many of the borrowed
words came from the field of administration, state, politics, war, law
and art [2 P. 53]. This third period continued into the 16th Century,
which means that for more than 400 years Norman French influenced English.
It is likely that many French words entered the English language, because
the upper class that had spoken French continued to use many French
words when the country went over to speaking English. Other people then
imitated their language, because of their social standing and education,
and the result was that thousands of French borrowings were adopted
[6 P. 75]. In the middle of the 14th century, a French dialect called
Central French or Parisian became the official standard in France and
on the British Isles [6 P. 75]. The loanwords that entered during this
time are therefore borrowed from this dialect. Many of them do not exist
in French anymore.

Some of them have however “survived”
in English. Examples of such words are close, feature, fuel and remain
[17].

Some 10,000 French words entered the
English vocabulary during the Norman occupation. Around 75% of these
words are still “alive” and used in English today [14].

Today it is also possible to look at
English words and understand how certain aspects of society worked during
this time. If we look at the words “beef” and “cow”, for
example, it is clear to see that the words are not of the same origin
even though their semantic relationship is obvious. The explanation
for this is that the word “beef” derives from Norman French,
while “cow” is of Germanic origin. Due to the fact that the
French people were those who could afford to eat “beef” during
this period, since many of them belonged to the aristocracy, they used
a word from their language. The people who tended the cattle, however,
were mostly the Anglo-Saxons and therefore they used the Germanic word
“cow” [20].

Many times, words of Germanic and Romance
origin that had the same meaning existed side by side. The Romance word
was often more formal and not as emotional as the native word [9]. Today,
many of these words are still used. Examples are the synonyms doom and
judgment, and odor and scent [9].

In the 14th and 15th Century there
was also a considerable amount of Latin influence. Due to translations
of Latin literature, and the fact that some people read literature written
in Latin, Latin loanwords managed to enter the English language [9].
The writings of Trevisa, Lanfranc, Arderne, and Wyclif are some famous
scientific and theological works that were translated during this period
[7 P. 8]. Examples of Latin loanwords from this period are “commit”,
“create” and “impress”.

1.3.5 The Modern Period

During the Renaissance in the 15th
century Latin and Greek became important languages once again. Scholars
and intellectuals studied classical texts that were written in Greek
and Latin, which eventually led to many loanwords from these languages
entering the vocabulary of other European languages, like English. Thousands
of words were borrowed during this

period, and many of them had already
been borrowed from French some centuries earlier. Now, the “same”
word entered the language, only this time from Latin directly [17].
“Perfect” is an example of a word that was borrowed twice. In Middle
English the word was “parfit” and had been borrowed from French,
but during the Modern Period the word was changed into “perfect”,
because the Latin equivalent was “perfectus”, and it was considered
better if the word resembled the Latin word [17].

1.4 Different types of borrowings

As mentioned earlier in the essay,
there are different types of borrowings. In the empirical part of the
essay the words in “God Save the Queen” will not be divided
into subgroups, and the word “loanword” will still be used
as the overall term. However, most linguists categorize borrowings in
this way:

Loanwords are words that keep their
meaning and phonetic shape, when they find their way into another language.
The word “pizza”, for example, which has its origin in Italian,
has the same “shape”, in other words, is pronounced and written
in the same way in both English and Italian, which makes it a “real”
loanword. It is also important that the word is inflected in the same
way. The plural forms therefore also have to be identical in both languages.

A semantic loan is a borrowing where
“the meaning of a foreign word is transferred onto an existing native
word [9]. An example of a semantic loan is the word “God”. The word
is a native English word and existed in Old English as well, but the
Christian meaning it has today was borrowed from the Romans and their
religion when they came to the British Isles.

A calque or a “loan translation”
is a “one-to-one translation of a foreign model” [9]. An example
of a calque is the English word “embody”, which has its origin in
the Latin equivalent “incorporare”. The word “loanword” is also
a calque.

People all around the globe with different mother tongues often have the same opinion regarding loanwords in their languages; they mostly do not like them. They wish that their own native words would be used instead and often fear that too much borrowing could lead to their mother tongue eventually dying out. A lot of this fear has been directed on the English language the last decades. Due to its tremendous rise as a global language many English words have entered other languages in all parts of the world. Babysitter and makeup are just two examples of common English words that are used in many other languages around the globe. Today, many countries are trying to reduce the influence that English has on their native tongues. In France, for example, laws are passed that make it illegal to use an English word in official contexts when there are native words that could be used instead .

Содержание

Introduction…………………………………………………………………...……3

1. Theoretical background………………………………………………………….4

1.1 Definiton………………………………………………………………………..4

1.2 History of the English language…………………………………………...…...7

1.3 Loanword periods………………...…………………………………………….8

1.3.1 The Zero period…………………………………...………………………….9

1.3.2 The First period……………………………………………………………..10

1.3.3 The Second period…………………………………………………………..11

1.3.4 The Third period…………………………………………………….………13

1.3.5 The Modern period………………………………………………….………15

1.4 Different kinds of borrowings………………………………………….……..16

1.5 What kinds of words are borrowed?.................................................................17

1.6 How many words are loanwords?.....................................................................19

2. An investigation of the origin of the words in “God save the Queen”…..…….21